JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Weeks after two undercover officers with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office shot a man who they said pointed a gun at them as they sat in a car, JSO released an update about the officer-involved shooting, which was the third reported in January.
JSO said the man, 35-year-old Samuel Cook, remains in the hospital in stable condition.
According to the “critical incident briefing” released by JSO, Cook used a firearm during the encounter with two undercover officers on Jan. 11, and that gun was connected to a previous shooting in November 2025.
According to JSO, the incident started around 6:40 p.m. when officers responded to a home on West 22nd Street where someone had reported drugs were being sold. They also said someone involved had a gun.
Two officers parked near the home in an unmarked vehicle, and around 7:15 p.m., Cook approached them from the back of the car, walked around to the front and pointed a gun at them.
Both officers fired their JSO-assigned handguns at Cook while they were still in the vehicle.
When Cook took off running, they chased him, and he shot back in their direction multiple times, JSO said.
They said Cook dropped his gun on West 23rd Street, where he was taken into custody. The officers rendered emergency aid until paramedics arrived.
Cook, who has a history of drug-related arrests, was taken to UF Health with multiple gunshot wounds, JSO said.
The officers were not injured.
Cook was charged with attempted murer of a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and possession of a firearm by a felon.
"A firearms expert forensically examined the handgun Cook fired during this critical incident. From the examination, the expert determined the gun had been used in a shooting in November of 2025," JSO said in its update on Wednesday.
The State Attorney’s Office will independently review the incident to assess the legality of the officers’ actions. JSO will then conduct an internal review to ensure the officers acted within policy. Conclusions remain pending, JSO said.
It was the third officer-involved shooting in the first 11 days of 2026.
Two JSO officers shot and killed a man in the Bartram Park area, and the same night across town, three officers shot a man in a separate incident in Arlington, JSO said. He was injured but survived.
“If you pull a gun when the police comes up, you are going to get shot. That’s just what’s going to happen,” Waters said. “And that’s what is happening in these cases. These guys are pulling out guns, firearms. It’s a dangerous world, we’re not playing games here. This is not Tiddlywinks. This is real life.”
Watch the full incident briefing in the video below